British Teen Jailed Over Encryption Password

An anonymous reader writes "Oliver Drage, 19, of Liverpool has been convicted of 'failing to disclose an encryption key,' which is an offense under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and as a result has been jailed for 16 weeks. Police seized his computer but could not get past the 50-character encrypted password that he refused to give up. And just to get it out of the way, obligatory XKCD."

Comments

Re:What do they want?

[idontgno]

I know it's not The Slashdot Way, but the first paragraph of TFA reads:

Oliver Drage, 19, of Liverpool, was arrested in May 2009 by police tackling child sexual exploitation.

(emphasis mine)

At least, that's what the authorities are after. The guy may be completely innocent of that, or of any criminal activity, but could have anything else he may want to hide. His diary. His little black book. Nothing at all, if he's just standing on principle (or being contrary and obstructionist, whatever you prefer according to your current political biases).